


Gifts

by Tokyo_the_Glaive



Series: 21 Days of Darcy Lewis Crossovers and AUs Challenge [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 04:34:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4208115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tokyo_the_Glaive/pseuds/Tokyo_the_Glaive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Darcy really, really thinks she's going to win her annual gift-off against the Professor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> For day 4 of the Darcy Lewis challenge: “We’re both teachers and at the end of the year we compare how many gifts we’ve received from students and you’ve won for the past three years" Teachers!AU

When her alarm went off to tell her that she needed to meet with the Professor in five minutes, Darcy glanced up at the sky and smiled at the heavy clouds hanging overhead.  This wasn’t one of Storm’s fake shows but a genuine, bona fide incoming storm.  The sky rumbled overhead as if to confirm, and Darcy laughed.  She could feel the crackling energy from all of the stored electricity and sheer power up there and inhaled deeply.  No matter where she was, if she could feel this kind of energy, she felt herself at home.  Today was going to be her lucky day.

Pushing the earth away, Darcy stabilized herself a few inches off the ground.  It had been her favorite trick when she first learned how to control her abilities, and now she used it whenever she could.  Darcy floated up from the field where she’d gone to relax during the one period per day she had free on toward the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.  She had lived and taught there since Jane Foster, one of the other instructors, found her wasting her talents pulling pranks at Culver and brought her in.

Darcy waved to Jane as she passed through the front doors, contorting in the air a little.  Students heading to their next class weaved around her.  Jane waved back with a smile and beckoned her into the classroom in which she stood.  Darcy raised herself above the students heads and passed over them to come to a halt in front of Jane.

“Afternoon,” Darcy said.  “How was astrophysics?”

Jane’s smile grew larger.  “I showed them Kepler-186f,” she said proudly.  In addition to powers of teleportation, Jane had the unusual ability to create a bubble that mimicked Earth’s sea level atmosphere.  As an instructor, she used her powers concurrently to teleport her students around the universe, looking at planets, stars, and on one memorable occasion, a small black hole.

“Cool,” Darcy said.  She had no idea what Kepler-186f was, but she had a feeling that she’d be hearing all about it later that evening.  Jane sat next to Darcy at all meals, and the two were sharing a room until renovations on the school were complete.  “Have you looked outside?”

“It’s going to be incredible,” Jane said, going to the window.  “What does it feel like?”

Jane had asked that question many times before, and Darcy always struggled to answer.  What does raw energy _feel_ like?

“Like you’re staring down at your hands and you realize that you can do anything,” Darcy said.  “Go anywhere.  Be anything.  It feels like excitement and fear and adrenaline and serotonin all rolled up into one neat package.”  Jane laughed a little at the neurotransmitters.  Everything Darcy knew about the natural sciences had come from Jane, and Darcy liked to throw scientific terms into regular conversation when it was just the two of them to remind Jane that she had listened, that she had cared, and that she was grateful.

“I’ve got my annual competition with the Professor today,” Darcy said.

“Oh?” Jane asked.  “You told me about this.  You see who’s brought in the most accolades?”

Darcy nodded.  “Whoever’s got the most swag wins,” she said.  After a pause, she added, “He’s won the past four years.  _Four years_ , Jane.”

“Gotta break that cycle,” Jane said.  She echoed Darcy’s words from last year.

Darcy clicked her tongue and pointed at her.  “You’ve got that right.  What’s on for tonight?”

“I’m taking my second rotation observing,” Jane said, “and then I’m off.  You up for storm chasing?”

Darcy grinned.  “Hell yes.”

* * *

Professor Xavier’s office was a bastion of civility and academia in an otherwise child-proofed house.  When Darcy had first arrived, she hadn’t believed that his office was _really_ his office.  She’d cried for days because she believed that it was all an elaborate trick, or else that he was messing with her mind and making her see things that weren’t really there.  It took the intervention of Cyclops and Storm, and one aborted attempt at leaving the property, to convince Darcy that what she saw was real.

“Good afternoon, Miss Lewis,” the Professor said as she floated in, coming to settle on one of his chairs.  The bald man smiled at her.  “Back for another round?’

Darcy grinned.  “I’ve got you this time, Professor,” she said.  “There’s no way you’ve outdone me.”

The Professor smiled back.  “It is true,” he said, “that you have had a marvelous year.”  Darcy flushed under the praise.  “You’ve had more positive student and parent evaluations than any prior year.”

“And that’s not all,” Darcy said.  She gestured with a finger and felt as, across the house, a bag in her room wiggled, lifted off, and began to zoom through the hallways.  She could have just brought it with her when she left for the morning, but Darcy would have been lying if she’d said that she wasn’t one for dramatic effect.

When it burst through the door, skidding to a halt on her lap, the Professor didn’t even bat an eye.

“Firestone,” Darcy said, pulling out one object.  “That’s Arthur’s handiwork.  Ed made an ice version, too.”  She extracted that as well.  The two floated side by side.

“Impressive,” the Professor said, as much about the student’s work as the fact of their belonging to Darcy.

“A medallion,” she said, “from Lacey.”  Darcy knew that the Professor cared for Lacey perhaps more than at the other students.  She reminded him of Erik, down to her gift for manipulating metal.

“A flower,” Darcy continued, “grown by Pierre.  And, last but not least, one of Idunn’s apples.”

“Do they count?” the Professor asked, bemused.  “Idunn grows one for each of her instructors.”

“It counts,” Darcy insisted.  “Usual rules, all gifts are of equal value.”

The Professor’s eyes twinkled.  “Are you sure that’s how you want to play?”

Darcy pulled a face.  “Of course,” she said.  “Since all of my gifts are equal to me.”

The Professor quickly sobered, though part of the smile remained.  It became clear quite quickly why as he told her what his students had done for him.

Darcy folded her arms and sat back as he extracted objects, one by one, from his desk.

“Not again,” she said at the end.  “Where do they even get this stuff?  The energy is strange.”

“I’m afraid you have lost, Miss Lewis,” the Professor said, sitting back.

Darcy cradled Pierre’s flower in her hand.  It was in a tiny beaker, stolen from the chemistry lab in the basement.  She intended to put it in a much bigger pot when she went back upstairs.  “It appears so,” Darcy said.  She would have been lying if she’d said that she wasn’t just a teensy bit disappointed.  “Shame.  I was feeling lucky today.”

Thunder crashed outside, and Darcy felt a thrill go up her arms.  “One of Storm’s?” the Professor asked, though he could have very easily looked into her mind for the answer.

“No,” Darcy responded.  “It’s natural.  It feels good.”

“Perhaps that is another gift, then,” he said.

Darcy laughed.  “Not from the students.  Doesn’t count.”

“Doesn’t it?”

There was a flash of lightning, and the storm must have been moving fast because the resulting crash of thunder was not far behind.

“Perhaps it does,” Darcy said.  She floated herself to the window.

The Professor rolled up next to her to look out with her.  “You’ve taught political science with us for five years now,” he said.

“That’s right,” Darcy responded.  “My first year I co-taught with Dr. McCoy.  Since then I’ve been on my own.”

“Do you like it here?” the Professor asked.

Darcy laughed a little.  “Do I like it?”  She looked at him, and his serious expression sobered her.  “Of course I do,” she said.  “Before Jane brought me in, I didn’t really have anyone.  You know, I first knew that there was something different about me because I knew that the kitchen in the house next door was on fire?  I could feel their toaster as it caught fire.  I called the police and tried to explain the feeling…” Darcy shook her head.  “They thought it was a prank call.”

She still remembered what the resulting inferno had felt like.  It had been beautiful and terrible and she yet wished that she had known just how powerful she was, so that she could have done something about it.  No one had been hurt.  Firefighters on the scene had even saved the pet cat, who had been knocked out by the sudden lack of oxygen.  That cat haunted her, amongst other things.

“After that—of course, you know all of this,” Darcy said.  She tapped her head.

“I don’t make it a policy to look into the minds of my staff,” the Professor said.  He spoke in a neutral tone that betrayed no resentment at the implication.

“No,” Darcy quickly amended.

After a moment, the Professor said, “After that, you left home.”

“Right,” Darcy said.  The memory of leaving—of her parents _wanting_ her to leave—stung.  “This is the first place that’s felt like home.”  Darcy frowned.  “This used to be your home.”

“It still is,” the Professor said.  “I’ve just decided to house others in addition to myself.”  He smiled softly.  “You’re not the only one who never enjoyed living alone.”

Darcy smiled back.  “I suppose not,” she said.  Her eyes fell on a clock on the Professor’s wall and she lifted herself off the ground.  “I’m afraid I ran over our scheduled time.”

“Not at all,” the Professor said.  “I’ll admit, I may have cleared my schedule.  I was curious to see how much more you trusted in yourself since last year.”

Darcy cocked her head, and the Professor gestured toward his desk.

“Last year, you couldn’t tell a natural storm from an unnatural one,” the Professor said.  “That is tremendous progress.”  He smiled.  “Not only that, but you can see through me.”

“What?” Darcy asked.  “I don’t understand.”

He gestured at the desk, where his gifts sat.  They shimmered once, unnaturally, then disappeared.

Darcy took in a deep breath.  “You _were_ in my mind.”

“Not exactly, no,” the Professor said.  “Those were illusions, something we now know you can see through.”

“The energy felt odd,” Darcy said.  She lowered herself to sit back in her chosen chair once more.  “Could you do it again?”

The gifts rematerialized on the desk.  Darcy picked one up—a copy of one of Idunn’s apples—turning it over in her hand.  “That’s why,” she said.  “It’s static.  The illusion is like a screenshot, isn’t it.  You know what it’s supposed to look like and feel like in a given moment and you project that moment, but there’s no ebb and flow.  Not even Brownian motion.”

“I see your lessons with Professor Foster have been paying off as well,” the Professor remarked.  Darcy grinned enormously.

“Well,” she said.  “She is a wonderful teacher.”

The Professor smiled back.  “I’m delighted that you two have gotten along so well.”  He allowed the illusion to fall, and the apple in Darcy’s hand disappeared.  The energy from the Professor’s mind returned there—Darcy felt it flow away from her, going back into that tremendous mind.

“I believe it’s time for dinner,” the Professor said.  He began to wheel forward.

“Allow me,” Darcy said.  She took over the controls, feeling the electricity and friction as she maneuvered the chair from behind the desk to the hallway.

“Thank you,” the Professor said.

Darcy smiled.  “No,” she said, “thank you.”


End file.
